Loss, a Common Theme in Sweetheart of the Song Trabong and...

Mark Fossie from the â€Å"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong† and Troy Maxson from â€Å"Fences† are two different literary characters in two different types of literary work that have many similarities. The â€Å"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong† written by Tim O† Brien is a fiction story. â€Å"Fences† by August Wilson is a play. Both of these literature works have a theme of loss, whether it is of the character himself or someone the character loves deeply. The loss can be a physical loss of the person through death or a mental loss of the person through a tough breakup that the character brought on himself. The â€Å"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong† ends with Mark losing his sweetheart Mary Anne Bell to the Greenies and â€Å"Fences† ends with the death of Troy. Even†¦show more content†¦He is controlling and wants her to stay by his side all the time. Mark being over controlling is a method of foreshadowing that hints to the reader that by the end of the story, they will not be together. Troy Maxson from â€Å"Fences† has a wife named Rose who is ten years younger than him. Throughout the play, there are instances where Troy controls her. Armstrong says, â€Å"Troy is very strong and set in his ways. He is a very hardened man who has had to survive on his own since he was young. He says exactly what he feels, regardless of how they may affect the person, who can be his wife or sons† (Armstrong, 17). When he is talking to Jim Bono, his friend, he tells her to go away. In the beginning of the play, he talks to Bono and she comes outside. Troy says, â€Å"What you worried about what we getting in for? This is men talk, woman.† When he says â€Å"men talk† this symbolizes that he thinks of Rose and women as being lower than men. He thinks that she will not understand what they are talking about and he would not want her to anyways. Troy also mentions Death a lot. He claims that h e has wrestled with Death. He says, â€Å"he wrestled with Death for three days and three nights and he is still standing here to tell people about it.† Rose says, â€Å"every time Troy tells that story he finds different ways to tell it. Different things to make up about it. Troy be talking about that stuff and half the time do not even know what he be talking about.† This gets Troy mad. He tells Rose